English National Ballet, The Forsythe Programme

English National Ballet, The Forsythe Programme, Sadler’s Wells, April 10, 2025

When the curtain opens on the Sadler’s Wells stage at the beginning of English National Ballet’s The Forsythe Programme, it is the figure of Sangeun Lee in Rearray (London Edition 2025), standing sideways to the audience under Tanja Rühl’s luminous, even lighting that captures all the potential energy of the space. Our focus is drawn naturally into Lee’s apparent stillness, anticipating the release of that energy in the lines and angles that her body holds poised within it. In silence, the sinewy machinery of her limbs extends into the space around her and her weight alights on the ground as if dancing a sophisticated dialogue with gravity. There is seemingly no effort, no evident resistance in her movement, even if the entire technique of classical ballet on which it is built is predicated on the natural opposition of the body’s internal forces. Lee’s mastery of stillness and precision means we are free to enjoy the angular, extended choreography Forsythe has created for her; the dancer and the dance have merged seamlessly. This is not always the case, however, with her two partners on this occasion: Henry Dowden and Rentaro Nakaaki. They dance the steps and shapes of the choreography but we also see the physical effort that goes into making them. Roslyn Sulcas, writing in the evening’s program, highlights ’…the idea of ‘line’, which transforms the body into a continuously flowing, harmoniously coordinated whole, with even the most strenuous passages appearing to be effortless.’ When the effort becomes external and visible, however, it has the effect of an overload of electricity that blows the fuse. The choreography doesn’t actually stop, but the dynamics are short-circuited and the lines and angles of the body foreshortened. 

Forsythe’s choreography, like that of one of his formative influences, George Balanchine, is built on the kind of technique — and Balanchine trained his dancers to master the technique he demanded — that extrudes the vocabulary of classical ballet through a vivid, geometric imagination that is invested in the joy of movement. There is little else in Rearray (London Edition 2025) to divert our attention — no narrative, no scenery, and minimal costumes. Forsythe sets up a frictionless choreographic system to negotiate David Morrow’s score, and it is then up to the dancers to perform within it without touching the sides. When danced well it is pure exhilaration to watch but not if there’s the slightest friction in the system. 

Rearray (London Edition 2025) is followed by a re-staging by Stefanie Arndt and Noah Gelber of Herman Schmerman (Quintet) to a score by Tom Willems. It’s another work in which the men in particular — some of the leading dancers in the company — are doing too much, their shoulders belying any attempt to create a clean line. And with one chance to see it (it will return in ENB’s R:Evolution in October) we have only the program note to assure us that Herman Schmerman (Quintet) ‘is arguably the second smash hit of [Forsythe’s] career, following 1987’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated…’ 

Even in the program photograph of the final work of the evening —Playlist (EP) — the evidence of shoulder strain is clearly on display. What is going on? Why allow damning evidence to appear on a full-page spread in the program? The work has its origins as Playlist (Track 1, 2) from 2018, when Forsythe was invited by former artistic director Tamara Rojo to create it on twelve male dancers in the company. It was extended the following year as Playlist (EP) at Boston Ballet and entered English National Ballet’s repertoire in 2022. Set to ‘an irresistible soundtrack of infectious pop and soul’, it is Forsythe in a major key channeling the company’s dance-floor energy in a series of choreographic permutations that, unlike the first two works, look out at the audience with an irrepressible desire to please. It seems the Sadler’s Wells audience knows what to expect, for the enthusiasm generated by the rising curtain, like the anticipation of the headliner at a rock concert, continues to the end of the performance. 

English National Ballet’s new artistic director, Aaron Watkin, is still at the stage of assessing his heritage. With The Forsythe Programme he is able to draw from his own experience as a dancer working with Forsythe to enrich the repertoire, but if, in his own words, he wants to continue ‘to show the different colours of Bill’s choreographic voice’ there’s work to be done on refining the company’s vocal chords.